Motional is a leading autonomous driving company on a mission to make driverless vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. Backed by Hyundai Motor Group, Motional is at the forefront of the physical AI revolution. Motional isn’t just building first-of-its-kind technology; we are transforming transportation to create safer streets and more sustainable mobility options.
The Systems Readiness and Performance team is the crucial bridge between software development and real-world deployment. We are responsible for driving system design, verifying and validating the autonomy stack, and defining, measuring, and validating system performance targets. We work closely with stakeholders in autonomy, infrastructure, and operations to build the definitive safety case for the commercial launch of our fully driverless IONIQ 5 robotaxis.
Mission Summary:
As the Director of Data Science, you will lead the strategic vision and execution for extracting intelligence from petabyte-scale on-road fleet data and simulation ecosystems. This leadership role is centered on building advanced data-driven methodologies, developing predictive and generative models, and serving as the primary analytical anchor supporting not only the Systems Readiness and Performance/Metrics teams but the whole company. You will drive the statistical rigor necessary to translate raw road data into high-fidelity performance metrics that directly inform vehicle launch readiness and safety-critical decisions.
Experience designing reward functions or applying Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) to evaluate human-like driving intent, assertiveness, and comfort.
Familiarity with physical AI ecosystems, open-weights Vision-Language models (VLMs), or processing raw telemetry without text-translation bottlenecks.
Direct experience evaluating core onboard software subsystems like Perception, Prediction, or Motion Planning.
Deep familiarity with functional safety engineering standards like ISO 26262 and ISO 21448 (SOTIF)
This is a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact at Motional by enhancing our data understanding and accelerating development speed for our industry-leading autonomous vehicle metrics and capabilities ecosystem. We take pride in having some of the brightest and most dedicated talent in the world on our team. If you're innovative, driven, and eager to tackle challenges, we'd love to have you join us!
Physical Demands:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, talk, or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand and at times for long periods; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and move up to 50 pounds.
Travel Requirements (greater than 20%):
Expected to travel for 1-2 weeks each quarter visiting all of our testing sites - mostly to LV, but also domestically as needed for the business.
Working Environment:
The work environment characteristics described here represent those a team member encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The team member is regularly exposed to mechanical and computer parts. The team member is occasionally exposed to fumes and/or airborne particlesThe noise level in the environment is low to moderate.
We encourage a hybrid schedule with in-office time at one of our locations in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas to support collaboration, or this role can be fully remote.
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The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process.
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.
Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for ever
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